UN and nationally documented sexual violence against men and boys has been reported in the following countries

Sexual violence against men and boys has been documented by the UN and national bodies in the following conflict situations.

This list also includes information on sexual violence against boys and men in countries where it is reported to have contributed significantly to human rights violations in the context of widespread political and ethnic violence (Kenya), as a means to intimidate perceived opponents of the government (Chile and South Africa) or to pursue government policies (Cambodia).

Our Reports

This report is the first in the planned series of reports to be published by the All Survivors Project on sexual violence against men and boys in different situations of armed conflict. Eight years on from the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, and more than two decades since fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) ended, conflict-related sexual violence against men and boys remains one of the least documented and most inadequately addressed of all the human rights abuses that took place during these wars.

The Extraordinary Chambers of the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) which investigates serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime 1975-1979, is considering evidence that both men and women were victims of forced marriage.

Since the beginning of the civil war between Seleka rebels and the “anti-balaka” militia in CAR in 2012, attacks on civilians remain widespread. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence including numerous male survivors.

The Chilean National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (also known as the “Valech Commission”) investigated human rights violations during the military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). Male detainees endured sexual torture, including genital beatings, electric shocks, rape and forced nudity.

Over 50 years of internal armed conflict in Colombia have contributed to extensive gender-based violence. The National Victim's Unit has recorded boys and men as victims of sexual violence in 3 per cent of cases.

Post-independence violence in DRC has peaked since the mid-1990s and civilians have long experienced gross human rights violations. Abuses committed by armed groups represent 69% of all confirmed cases of conflict-related sexual violence affecting women, girls, men and boys.

Following the victory of Coalition forces in Iraq in 2003 there was an increase in arbitrary detention along with allegations of ill-treatment and torture of Iraqi detainees by United States and United Kingdom military officers under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission reported extensively on sexual violence directed at both men and boys. It intensified intensified during the post-election crisis of 2007-2008 with reports of rape, genital mutilations, penile amputations, and crude circumcisions of Luo boys and men.

The International Commission of Inquiry on Libya has investigated and verified numerous cases of use of sexual violence to torture male and female detainees by security forces under the Gaddafi regime.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) investigated gross human rights violations during the apartheid years. It found that male detainees experienced forced nudity, rape, insertion of objects into bodily orifices, and beating and electric shocks to genitals.

South Sudan’s civil war since 2013 has led to widespread insecurity and political instability in the country. Of UN documented cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2015, 4% of the victims were men.

Torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment were widely documented in Sri Lanka during and in the immediate aftermath of the 30-year civil war. In 2015, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) found that male detainees “…were as likely to be subjected to sexual violence as female detainees.”

Sexual violence has continued to be systematically used as a tactic of warfare and torture in Syria. The UN and other organisations have documented systematic sexual torture of men in detention by state and pro-government forces.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) investigated war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s. The ICTY was the first international war crimes tribunal to examine cases involving charges of sexual violence.